Orientation/help for returning conquerers - ID: 1146
FORUM: Guides, Spoilers and Walkthroughs
This topic was started by Crocket on 04/05/2013, 07:30:06
Hey! I've missed this place since beating Maruziel in April of 2012! I saw the full expansion got released last month, but figured I'd let a few braver (and patient) souls push their way through, discover any bugs and wait for the updates before I take the plunge. :D
Heck, I've spent the last few days just catching up with posts here in the forums...I've also downloaded the item list and the updated manual, though I think I need to reload the compendium to get the new one with updates.
I've noticed the new Dragon Caller class, the two new skills of thief mastery and alchemy, and some weapons and gear which make the Silversword look downright puny! So I have a bunch of questions BEFORE I re-enter this magical world (and ditch my family for several hundred hours!):
- Is the Dragon Caller the new Arch Mage? Some of the DC spells make a many AM spells blush! I truly hope my AM's aren't useless in the expansion. It looks obvious you'll need one fully involved DC, but will they replace the AM, or complement them?
- Who can do alchemy?
- Given the changes in weapons and spells, are last year's melees still this year's best options? I see things like Assassine, Staff of Lazarus, Firestaff, Axe of Souls, Staff of Storms, Lance of Fury and Singing Sword...and wonder, could Bards and Rogues suddenly outplay Hunters, Warriors, Paladins and Monks?
- How has inflation from game 1 to the expansion impacted the values of spell costs, damage and hit points? I have noticed some changes in spell cost, but also a change in the XP required to advance each level? I read about a +.7% per level, but it says my Level 75 Warrior who has capped out at 40/40/30/30/30, requires 187,000,000 to achieve a new level. What is up with that? Is that an error? It looks like he has become impossible to improve, but not sure if that makes him a good candidate to promote to DC.
- Another change since I finished is the chest game. Does this make a rogue a necessity, or can magic skills still replicate the picks and trap zaps? I beat the original game without a rogue or a bard, which really gets to the most important question...
- What kind of party makeup will be ideal to excel in the expansion? Any characters that are required (beyond the new DC) to win? Any characters that are now duplicitous, or not needed against this new magic?
Thanks for the insights...Hopefully, as the expansion gets loaded by tons of returnees, this would be a valuable intro for returnees, as opposed to the nubees who have very different questions. (Wizard, I'm talking to you!)
Most importantly - Mario, I see you are still incredibly active on the boards with players. Thanks. You not only create an amazing game experience for us all, but your personal approach and care when it comes to customer service is unparalleled! I hope to reward that with tons of in app purchases, just as I needed the first time through! :mrgreen:
Crocket
Hello Crocket,
and WELCOME back :D
Thank you very much! Well, the expansion gets bought, that much I can say - but it won't make me rich ;)
I will try to continue giving the best I can, I love this game as much as you do, and I am still playing it although I know everything.
As for your questions: I hope that somebody can/will answer them. There were a few rule changes that needed to be made, as you already noticed.
Kind regards
Mario
We should all send emails and write to the big gaming magazines about this game, lets get Mario his props. There are other games that have no service, and rip you off blind. This is the complete opposite! (Even tho I can't complete half the stuff without this forum :)
Just some general info, I would read this thread on dragoncaller, the class does not replace your archmages, but you will need a non-caster to convert to one to finish the expansion:
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You will probably want a rogue, the trap mini-game is the "new" way to pick chests, and only a rogue with the skill pick locks will get it. Otherwise you are using magic or trying to force chests open. With the assassine and mater thievery, the rogue becomes quite good, but you can still convert him to a DC later on if you choose.
The rest of the stuff you will find, at level 75 you will crush most everything in the early stages of the expansion, as I think they are designed for 30-35th level tops.
Some things you will need:
10 rubies, or 5 diamonds to trade in for rubies, or 5 silver runes to trade in for diamonds then to get rubies. These were rare before but show up a lot now, in particular in the lower level areas. I started a new group for fun and by the time I was heading towards savage crossing I had 7 diamonds and 5 rubies.
Runes on your weapons -- right now it is silver that is needed to hit some of the monsters and higher ones do not work. However, Mario says this will change with maybe version 2.32
The egg from the dragon tower (off of the ridgelands area, accessible if you have stone blade) - this needs at some point, preferably before you start, to be placed in the abandoned tower basement (newbie area) in the door you could not get in before.
I posted my party composition in another post, but my guys were max level 62, a paladin, warrior, rogue, bard, dragoncaller (converted from hunter), and 2 archmages.
Alchemy can be added to any class, you buy the skill in watertop I believe, but you need components to advance it and it takes some time. So pick a few chars you want to have some basic casting (I picked all my remaining non-casters and focused on the rogue and bard) and then you need to use it a lot to progress the skill.
Hope that helps!
I will echo ez1's comments in that you definitely should consider having a rogue as part of your party. Majority of the required chest now are unaffected by trapzap. Forcing such chests are doable but very time consuming and damages the individual attempting such. Also having a master thief able to critical a monster 90 feet away is always helpful :).
As far as the bard is concerned, it depends on how magic reliant you are. Having a bard with spell chant on to regenerate your ams and dcs is a must if you rely on them a lot as there are numerous locations that seem be unavoidable that saps large amounts of magic points from your spell casters. Although there are new equipment that helps with magic regen, these equipment pieces just aren't enough, though you can supplement your spell casting with rings of destruction. On top of that reason, there seems to be an abundant number of horns dropping, some of which are quite powerful. This will allow you to save your am and dc's spell points.
Also of note there are now more monsters that are completely unaffected damage wise by magic, critical strike, stoning, etc., that have very high hit points, so having warriors with high number of hits with decent damage weapons are a must.
As for my opinion, i believe only one am is now needed along with one dc. This will allow you to have 3 heavy hitters (1 or 2 warrior, 1 paladin (though i'm finding that they just are not as useful as an additional warrior as at high levels the number of hits per attack difference is staggering), 1 monk (i've always been a fan of this class in all different kinds of rpg, plus the fact that at high levels my monk's ac is way above -100 and he does more damage than the warrior) plus a bard (purely for spell chant and with dragon bow at range) and a thief. This will lead you to a balance party imho. Each heavy hitter should have a silver runed weapon or higher one this is implemented. The dc and am will be damage wise useless in certain fights but will supply pure support in either casting hesitation, push back (forgot that spell name) or calling regenerating hp spells (forgot that name also).
You will notice that i have not mentioned any hunter, as i'm of the mind that hunters make the best dcs, though if it didn't take so long to get a fully trained master thief, i might lean towards the thief. The 99% chance of critical is quite nice, while you train up the dc to have more sp as the spell costs of most of the dc's spells are quite high. I tend to save all my dc's sp to cast vision or regeneration.
Just my humble opinion....of which could change, as i'm planning to try out the following once i complete my current game:
2 bard one for spell chant and one for hp regen or light :)
3 thieves one of which will become my dc
1 warrior or monk needed for those pesky prowlers and stalkers.
1 am
A sidenote:
2 bard one for spell chant and one for hp regen or light :)
I will have to check if you can stack bard songs from different characters.
By now, this most likely does not work.
- puttingitonthetodolist*
Kind regards
Mario
We are testing stacked bard songs in play test so it is coming soon. A second bard for Song of Arms (attracted monster encounters) is an interesting possibility.
Testing higher runes on weapons to hit prowlers and some other monsters is also being tested so that feature should be coming soon, too.
If you want to convert your rogue to a DC make sure you get him/her to master thief first and get the INT to 24 before converting for best SP.
I believe the new leveling rules have more to do with balancing the game battles than penalizing past players who raised their characters to high levels. As was noted there are new weapons that help offset the inability of high level characters to go up levels very quickly. And some of those new reasons actually do have ranges beyond one.
